Study Shows Too Many Americans Are Skimping on Their Vacation Time

Sabrina is the editor in chief for TINYpulse news. She's dipped her toes into various works of writing — from retail copywriter to magazine editor. Her work's been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg BNA, and Tech.co.

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According to a new study by travel site Skift.com, Americans are being startlingly stingy with their vacation time, with a whopping 41% of workers having taken not a single vacation day in 2015. Skift conducted the most simple survey imaginable, posting a single question via Google Consumer Surveys: “How many vacation days did you take in 2015?” It was enough to reveal some amazing things.

Here’s how the raw percentages break down:

Took no vacation days in 2015: 40.5%

Took under 5 vacation days in 2015: 17.4%

Took between 5 and 10 vacation days in 2015: 14.8%

Took between 10 and 20 vacation days in 2015: 14.4%

Took more than 20 vacation days in 2015: 12.9%

Here’s some of what else the data showed.

Men took slightly more days off than women.

Generation Z and milllenials took fewer vacation days than anyone else.

Residents of the Northeast are the most likely to take more vacation days.

Residents of the Midwest are the most likely to take the fewest vacation days.

* Rural people are the largest geographic group taking absolutely no vacation days at all.

Parents and families find taking vacation days more difficult than other people.

Wealthy respondents too the most vacation days.

The survey had about 2,000 respondents.

What’s going on here isn’t clear. Science seems to be more and more certain that taking time off is important for one’s mental and physical health, and many companies are experimenting with unlimited vacation time for their employees. Other countries get it. The entire month of August is vacation-time for the French, for example. Are we afraid to take the time off? Is going somewhere just too expensive?

Whatever it is, we Americans just can’t seem to relax, even when it’s for our own good.

Sabrina is the editor in chief for TINYpulse news. She's dipped her toes into various works of writing — from retail copywriter to magazine editor. Her work's been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg BNA, and Tech.co.